WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Shelby, a lead negotiator on a financial-rules bill, said Republicans will block Democrats’ efforts to begin debate on the measure in a test vote Monday, saying the move would give them more leverage.
“I believe that 41 Republicans are right now going to stand together,” Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said in a speech at an Independent Community Bankers of America conference in Washington.
If Democrats fail to get enough votes, Republicans plan to offer their own alternative financial regulation plan, a Shelby aide told reporters on Monday.
Democrats, who control the Senate with a 59-41 majority, need 60 votes to open debate in the procedural ballot set for 4 p.m. CDT in Washington.
Shelby said he will continue talks with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who wrote the bill, to come up with a bipartisan compromise.
Republicans have focused criticism of the Dodd bill on a provision that would give the government power to liquidate failing financial firms whose collapse would disrupt the economy. Republicans say the provision doesn’t go far enough in to eliminate the potential for future bailouts similar to the $700 billion package Congress approved in 2008 to aid companies including Citigroup Inc. and American International Group Inc.
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